The Dangerous Gift

The Dangerous Gift is the fourteenth book in the New York Times bestselling series Wings of Fire and the fourth book in the third arc. The main protagonist is Snowfall, although there are multiple points-of-view featured in the book. The book was released on March 2nd, 2021. Additionally, the B&N Exclusive Edition of the book came with a poster of Jerboa and young Jerboa III.

The Dangerous Gift is preceded by The Poison Jungle and is followed by The Flames of Hope.

Summary

A wall can't protect them anymore ...

Snowfall didn't expect to be queen of the IceWings at such a young age, but now that she is, she's going to be the best queen ever. All she has to do is keep her tribe within IceWing territory, where it's safe — while keeping every other tribe out, where they belong.

It's a perfect and simple plan, backed up by the Ice Cliff wall and every bit of IceWing magic Snowfall can gather. Perfect, that is, until a storm of unidentified dragons flies in from the ocean, looking for asylum.

The foreigners are completely strange and, Snowfall is certain, utterly untrustworthy. But as she escorts the miserable new tribes out of her kingdom, the young queen is forced to reconsider her plan. Maybe she can only keep her tribe safe ... if she's willing to risk everything.

Quote on back of hardcover

"The lost continent isn't real!" Snowfall cried.

"Unless it is real, and we're about to get hundreds of visitors to prove it!" Lynx was nearly dancing on her claws. Snowfall wanted to drop a mountain on her.

"What if they have extra-murdery superpowers we've never even thought of?"

"We can't worry about that until it actually happens," Lynx said.

"Yes, we can!" Snowfall cried. "I'm worrying about it right now!"

Dedication

For Benjamin — welcome to the family!

And for the Pyrrhia-Pantala AU, with hugs and awe for all your amazing dragons.

Plot

Prologue

The prologue is set a few days after the LeafWings and some of the SilkWings fled Pantala. Swordtail woke up and remembered the events of the past day, along with how the two armies at the river had burned the Poison Jungle and how he had been looking for Cricket while under the control of the othermind, but was unable to find her. He saw Blue asleep and as soon as he went to wake him up, the othermind took over Swordtail's mind again, intentionally thwarting his attempt to reunite with his friend. Knowing it cannot read his thoughts, he retained hope that Cricket and Sundew found their way over to the Distant Kingdoms and found Luna, and would come back to rescue him and Blue.

Part One: Blizzards and Buried Magic

Snowfall heard about a group of dragons flying towards her kingdom. She demanded the scout who reported the sighting to her if he was sure that it was not NightWings and he responded that no black dragons had been spotted. She pondered about numerous possibilities, such as if Darkstalker was not gone after all and if it was a group of RainWings flying towards them. After telling the scout to look again, Tundra showed up and informed Snowfall that it was time to rearrange the names on the gift of order. Snowfall thought about her experiences of being queen and, after what she lost in order to get it, found it to be her least favorite thing in the world. She mentioned how she thought the gift of order was a good thing for the kingdom, but she realized that it was more an act of twisted revenge rather than a gift at all and hated how she had to move names every single night. Snowfall put on her crown and moved a couple names around, such as Hailstorm and Permafrost. Tundra questioned how little she reordered the names and Snowfall ordered her to go away, wanting to move on to dealing with the mysterious dragons as soon as possible. She remembered how Tundra and Narwhal used to be second-in-command to Glacier and that Tundra hated having to bow to her niece. Snowfall then heard a noise in the courtyard and realized that someone was watching her.

She ordered the dragon to show themselves, preparing to use her frostbreath on them. Lynx appeared from the tree of light and Snowfall demanded if she was spying on her, being surprised when Lynx jokingly confirmed that she was. Lynx said that she was worried about her and mentioned how the only dragons Snowfall talked to nowadays were "old, bossy, and kind of mean." Snowfall bragged about how she had been prepared for being queen her whole life and Lynx said that she did not expect her to be queen for at least a couple decades. A flashback was then shown with then-queen Glacier on her deathbed as a result of the plague, with Snowfall, Crystal, and Mink beside her. Glacier stressed how she did not want a succession war like the SandWings had and made her daughters promise to not challenge each other for the throne and to support whoever she chose to be queen. After all three of them did so, she named Snowfall as the next queen. Crystal left the kingdom the next morning afterwards, leaving Snowfall to wonder if she was plotting against her. Lynx suggested that Snowfall should take a break and she rejected it, yelling that her sister was going into hiding to kill her and the "evil" mysterious dragons would likely arrive by tomorrow, and pondered if Crystal and the mystery dragons were working together, or if queens Coral and Glory were working together to take her down. Lynx tried to reason with her, asking why anybody would want another war so soon after the War of SandWing Succession, but Snowfall continued to be paranoid. She then told Lynx that the unidentified dragons were coming from the western ocean and Lynx realized that they might be from the lost continent. She proposed a plan to Snowfall: they would fly to the coast to meet them and find out who they were and what they intended to do. Snowfall reluctantly agreed and decided to head to the Forbidden Treasury to see if any animus gifts could help her.

She saw Mink chatting with some of her guards as she was walking towards the vault. Mink gave Snowfall a gift, a mink carved from a tiny block of ice, and asked if she could come into the royal chambers, stuttering that she slept with her mother when she had trouble sleeping. Agreeing to her request, Snowfall stressed to the guards that nobody was allowed in the room for tonight and pushed her bed aside, revealing a hole underneath it, leading to the vault. She told Mink to never tell anybody else about it and they looked around the area. Snowfall spotted a small tiara, the gift of strength, and took it, wearing it on her head. Refusing the gift of compromise when she saw it, she spotted an opal ring on one of the alcoves, the carved words saying that it was the gift of vision. Assuming that it would improve her eyesight, she slipped the ring onto her talon. Passing by a piece of the gift of understanding, Snowfall saw a set of pale silver wristbands with diamonds and was certain that it would give the invading dragons an unwelcome surprise upon reading the inscription.

She set off towards the coast at dawn, accompanied by Lynx and five guards. Lynx wondered if Snowfall got any sleep and she admitted that she did not, lying that she was busy with both the treasury and trying in vain to have Mink not sleep in her bed. She revealed that her items are animus-touched, causing Lynx to remind her that the Forbidden Treasury was named that way for a reason, which Snowfall ignored. Asking the queen if she could understand and control the items she was wearing, Snowfall assured her that she could, leaving out that the gift of vision was not working the way she assumed. Snowfall then showed Lynx the weapons she had on her, leaving out some of the other hidden weapons on her in case Lynx was working against her, and asked her about one of the outer villages. Lynx mentioned that her estate overlooks Among-The-Evergreens and how she had not been back there in a while when one of the guards spotted the mystery dragons up ahead. When Snowfall saw them, she started to panic and said that they were going to kill her, but Lynx managed to calm her down. The group flew to a cliff and watched the mysterious dragons land on the beach below them. Snowfall recalled the Battle of Jade Mountain and how she learned from the empathy spell that the IceWings doubted her ability to rule, and that the NightWings did not believe that she was a serious threat, remembering it as the worst day of her life. Snowfall and her guards approached the exhausted refugees and Queen Hazel introduces herself and the two tribes, pleading for help, but Snowfall refused and ordered them to leave her kingdom. She heard a scream and pulls her knives to prepare herself, but it turned out to be Bumblebee, who cried upon seeing her threatening gesture and ran back to Cricket. The IceWing queen continued to demand that they leave as Tsunami, Turtle, and more of the LeafWings and SilkWings arrive. When Cricket mentioned that HiveWings are descendants of Clearsight, Snowfall, seething with rage, smashed the diamonds on her wristbands together three times, and revealed that she had brought her entire army with her, using the gift of stealth to conceal their presence.

Intimidated by the army, Hazel relented and agreed to leave her kingdom. Tsunami insulted Snowfall and decided to lead the refugees south to the SandWing kingdom, where Moonwatcher and Luna were. Realizing that the route would lead them to the Great Ice Cliff, Lynx warned Hazel and decided that she and Snowfall wpuld escort them safely across, with Snowfall electing to bring ten of her guards. After putting Ivory in charge of the IceWing kingdom, Snowfall flew with everyone to the southern border and she privately considered it to be the happiest day of her rule since she was not rearranging the names on the wall. She and Hazel talked to each other about being queen and Hazel mentioned the breath of evil. Snowfall pressed and asked if it is Darkstalker and Hazel clarified that it is a plant. She advised Hazel to watch her back and not trust anyone as a queen, and the refugees reached the far side of the tundra where Jerboa's hut was. Sundew reunited with Luna and told her what happened to her friends back on Pantala. After Snowfall talked to Jerboa, Moonwatcher introduced herself and said that her vision was showing only the beginning, much to Snowfall's annoyance. Jerboa decided to let the refugees stay for a bit and Qibli proposed taking them to Sanctuary where they would be safe. Relieved that she would not have to attend to the gift of order for a little longer, Snowfall decided to keep going with them. Night fell and she noticed that she could not remove the ring on her talon. Giving up and believing that it would come off with palm oil, she fell asleep.

While asleep, she had a dream that she was Atala which she did not tell anyone about. A short while later, after interrogating Lappet about SilkWings and LeafWings, she discovered that the ring of vision was the one behind her visions, and she attempted to get it off by hitting the ring onto a nearby rock. This failed, resulting in her talon feeling bruised and sore.

Lynx demanded Snowfall to tell her what was wrong, and she told Lynx about the gift of vision, leading to an argument where Lynx warned her about how her paranoia and mistrust of other dragons would lead to her downfall before angrily storming away, convincing Snowfall to keep her problems to herself. She later asked Luna to use her flamesilk on the ring, but nothing happened other than Snowfall's wrist hurting.

They reached Sanctuary and Snowfall saw an IceWing running away from her. She uses the gift of stealth to catch her, and found her long-lost sister Crystal.

Part Two: Sanctuary and Scavengers

Snowfall asked Crystal what she was doing in Sanctuary and Gharial attacked Snowfall, thinking she was going to hurt Crystal. She countered with the gift of strength and severely injured him. Crystal sorted things out with Snowfall and she realized Crystal was not plotting against her. Tsunami invited the queens from each tribe to a meeting in Sanctuary. As Queen Thorn arrived with Qibli, Snowfall lapses into another vision. This time, she was Blue and Queen Wasp back on Pantala. Blue was forced to round up all the SilkWings in Cicada Hive so they can be contained until a new batch of the breath of evil was ready, while Wasp was furious that SilkWings keep disappearing from the Hives, so she stations soldiers in Cicada Hive, Blue included, to finally catch whoever was warning the SilkWings. Once the vision was over, Snowfall and Queen Thorn went for a long flight and came back to the town square where Tsunami and Sundew were arguing. As the other queens began to arrive, Snowfall fell into yet another vision, ordering Winter and Qibli to take her away before she was seen.

This time she was Bryony hiding in Pantala's caverns. When she woke up, Snowfall was told by Winter to guard the scavenger sanctuary as the only scavenger currently in there was Daffodil, nicknamed Pumpkin by Winter, who was constantly trying to escape. As she was guarding the sanctuary, she noticed an odd-colored SkyWing talking to some bushes. This dragon, who turns out to be Sky, tried to get Snowfall's attention, distracting her while Wren freed Daffodil from the sanctuary by cutting/digging a hole through the fence.

When Snowfall discovered Daffodil was missing, she chased after Sky using the gift of stealth. When she catched up to him, she met Wren and was completely taken by surprise when Wren began to speak to Snowfall in Dragon. During this conversation, Snowfall fell into another vision, thinking that scavengers absolutely could not be sentient. This time she was Raven, a scavenger that lived on Pantala, and the vision took place in the abyss. After, Snowfall required a little time to remember that she was a dragon and understood Daffodil in Human. Snowfall later convinced Wren to speak with Winter and later convinced Wren to go to Pantala as a representative if Snowfall could convince the other queens to make eating humans illegal. The queens agreed and prepared to send the representatives to Pantala: Sky, Tsunami, Bullfrog, Pineapple, Moonwatcher, Qibli, Lynx, Luna, Cricket, Sundew, and Wren.

Part Three: Walls of Ice

The night before Snowfall returned to the Ice Kingdom, she had no visions. She woke up some time past dawn and she saw Lynx and Crystal. Snowfall realized that Crystal was trying to hide her nervousness by looking bored. She told Crystal that she would not have her killed if she returned to the Ice Kingdom unless Crystal was coming to steal the throne. Crystal replied that she had no interest in taking the throne. Snowfall then added that Crystal has her permission to marry Gharial. Snowfall then started talking about the council with the other queens and had a small talk. Snowfall and her accompanying IceWings said goodbye and left for the Ice Kingdom. As Snowfall flew towards the Great Ice Cliff, she thought about what would happen if the othermind landed in the Ice Kingdom and about how the IceWings would need connections with the other tribes. She then used the tiara of strength to break a hole in the cliff.

At night, Snowfall asked the ring again to show her what happened to animus magic. In her dream, she became Jerboa I when she was a fugitive from the Kingdom of Sand. Through her, Snowfall discovered how she died and then became her daughter Jerboa III. She saw that Jerboa III broke animus magic before Luna arrived due to her fear of being forced to use magic by other dragons.

When she returned to the IceWing palace, she saw that her aunt and uncle had put the IceWing crown on Mink and dubbed her queen in her absence. They discovered that the crown Mink was wearing was enchanted by Diamond to make the wearer hate NightWings. Snowfall ordered Ivory to destroy the crown. She took Mink to the gift of order and asked Mink if she knew what it was. Mink replied that the dragons above her were better than her and that she was better than the dragons below. Snowfall replied that Mink was correct, but it did not make sense, as Mink might do a math test better than the dragonet below her, but he might make a better ice sculpture. Mink was shocked at this and Snowfall quickly said that it was a maybe and Mink called out to Polar Bear, the dragonet below her, that she still loved him anyway. Snowfall contemplated whether she should have explained later and smashed her fist into the gift of order. Tundra shrieked and charged Snowfall, but Snowfall batted her away and continued destroying the wall. Once she finished, Tundra was staring at the rubble as if it might come back, and Lynx was separating Tundra from Snowfall to keep her from charging at Snowfall again. Tundra then fainted and had to be taken to her room while she recovered.

Snowfall went to bed and dreamed about herself in the forbidden treasury with an animus IceWing named Opal. After her chat with Opal, she became her mother and saw herself, realizing that her mother did not just choose her to be queen because she could not have chosen Crystal or Mink. When she woke up the next morning, she saw that the ring has vanished. She looked out the window and thought of the stealth team and that Lynx was flying to Jerboa's beach to meet them. She hoped that they could stop Wasp and the breath of evil, as well as that she could see Wren, Sky, Sundew, Cricket, and the other dragons again.

Epilogue

Raven was seen going to the abyss to give Vole some food. It was said that she and Mole are the only ones who dared approach him, since he has tossed others into the pit before. Vole asked if she can hear the whispers and she responded that she could not understand what it was saying. He suddenly became strange and ominous, saying that it was growing and it would soon need a dragon. She attempted to ask for details, but he remained vague, telling her to bring "the dragon" to the pit to save the village or everyone she knew would die.

Mistakes

• On the English cover, the gift of vision is completely blue, but in the book, it is described to be a milky pink-gold-white-green opal set into the center of it.
• On the English cover, several of the dragons coming from Pantala have bat-shaped wings, when only Tsunami and Turtle should.
• Lynx refers to scrolls as books, when at this point, Pyrrhia should have no knowledge of books, which originated in Pantala.
• When Luna uses flamesilk to break off the SilkWings' armbands, she only burns one side, and the armbands come off. However, she would have to burn the other side as well.
• The term finger is used instead of claw.
• Moon mentioned that "Sanctuary is technically on the border of SandWing and SkyWing territory, so [Thorn] should know that they're there." However, Sanctuary is located in the Sky Kingdom; the city on the border of the Kingdom of Sand and the Sky Kingdom is Possibility.
• The word feet is used instead of talons.

Gallery

Click here to see the cover gallery.

References

ru:Опасный дар fr:Le Trésor Interdit de:The_Dangerous_Gift